Will Californians Vote to Split Into Three Separate States?

If there has ever been any meaning to the word “long shot,” it would have to be applied to a proposal that just crossed the threshold of signatures needed for it to appear on the California ballot in November. The brainchild of venture capitalist Tim Draper, the initiative poses the opportunity to voters to split California into three separate states. This move would, in his view, more accurately represent the disparate population interests of the state’s regions.

The initiative has collected more than 600,000 signatures and will be headed to election officials next week.

“This is an unprecedented show of support of every corner of California to create three state governments that emphasize representation, responsiveness, reliability, and regional identity,” Draper said.

From CBS News:

Splitting California into three states would require congressional approval.

The initiative proposes a central state that would consist of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties; a southern state made up of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera and Mono counties; and the 40 remaining counties grouped into a northern states.

The new states would be named by its residents, according to the initiative.

Draper said he conceived the initiative out of a belief that “the citizens of the whole state would be better served by three smaller state governments while preserving the historical boundaries of the various counties, cities and towns.”

Draper, who has made two previously unsuccessful attempts to put an initiative like this on the election ballot, told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson that Sacramento could not possibly respond to the various – and in many cases, conflicting – interests of California’s various regions.

“I think that these three new states are going to empower people to realize what’s possible in government,” he said. “The education system is just about the worst in all 50 states, and it’s the biggest state. So it really does need sort of a revamp and a restart. And I think this is a good start to doing that.”

It’s hard to imagine this getting on the ballot, much less actually going anywhere after that, but you never know. It was tough to predict that the UK would actually break away from the European Union as well. Sometimes political lightning strikes in the most extraordinary circumstances.